On August 26, Kyrgyzstan saw a big reshuffling of government officials. Former presidential Chief of Staff Sapar Isakov was appointed the Prime Minister of the country. His office was taken by Mr. Almaz Usenov, formerly responsible for the presidential administration’s press relations.

The Film Commissioner of Kyrgyzstan Stanislav Solovkin believes this is the best news for the country’s film and TV industry in years. Read his congratulations below:

At first we planned to congratulate Mr. Isakov and Mr. Usenov with their new, highly responsible positions. But then we realized they don’t have time to celebrate. A lot of work needs to be done. Our congratulations are rather addressed to our fellow film and TV professionals of Kyrgyzstan and all of Kyrgyz people.

It’s rare for a country to get two top-level professionals in a government within one day. Of course, Prime Minister Isakov and the president’s Chief of Staff Usenov are statesmen of different levels, dealing with different tasks.

But for those who work on making Kyrgyzstan part of the global film and TV industry, Mr. Isakov and Mr. Usenov have one important thing in common. They clearly realize the importance of film and TV in shaping a new international image for Kyrgyzstan.

We have experienced this first-hand while organizing big foreign film and TV productions in Kyrgyzstan. We can say for sure that everyone who is engaged in film and TV in this country has just got strong allies. Possibly, the strongest in the whole history of independent Kyrgyzstan.

We congratulate our colleagues and ourselves with this.

Sapar Isakov was born in the capital Bishkek (formerly Frunze) in 1977. He started his career in the Foreign Ministry in the beginning of the 2000’s. Since 2007, he has been heading foreign policy departments of the government and the presidential administration.

Almaz Usenov was born in Kyrgyzstan’s Issyk-Kul region in 1981. In 2003, he joined the President’s press office and worked his way to the presidential administration’s head of information policy in 2012.